Week 12: In Class Reading _ Bloodchild

"Bloodchild"

Octavia E. Butler

1. What is your reaction to the text you just read?

When I first read this short story, I was very much confused since nothing was described, Tlic or Terran. As I read through the text and started to understand what the two words were, I got pretty disturbed, not by the bloody mess that was happening in the story, but rather how the system worked between a Tlic and a Terran. This surely is an alien based story, however I would wonder who the real ‘alien’ was in this world, the Tilc or the Terran. In the text there was a part where T’Gatoi said, “The animals we once used began killing most of our eggs after implantation long before your ancestors arrived,” which might indicate that Terran, whom are most likely to be humans, came later than the Tilcs. Does this mean that Terrans were the aliens?

2. What connections did you make with the story? Discuss the elements of the story with which you were able to connect. 

For some reason, this story reminded me of the movie ‘Alien’ and some other alien films that I have watched in the past since there are things such as implantation in those films. When growing up as a child watching some of these films, it does sound as if many monstrous alien-like creatures would use humans as a host for giving birth to their children, most of them by providing blood or flesh. In Bloodchild, it is as if humans (Terrans) are like animals since they are just a ‘food source’ for the Tlics’ to be born children. Just like how humans see animals as our food source, it would be the same for other species that might be living far away from us.  I’d say this kind of alien-like activities of using humans for their own goods has be used in movies and books numerous time that this might be many people’s ideal thought on aliens that leads to people’s fear for alien invasion.  

3. What change would you make to adapt the story with another medium? What medium would you use? What change would you make?

This story might be quite interesting to create into a comic book to show the graphic and creative part of it. To give people a better idea how these creatures may look like. If I was to draw comic, I would stylize it in order to avoid disgusting the viewers. This way it might get a better range of audiences. It’d also be better to get rid of some of the extreme details with the gores for the sake for those who might find things disturbing to look at.

Another medium I would like to see this story in would be as a film. I personally am not really into alien films since they use large amount of computer graphics that look very much fake, however watching it once in a while does entertain me. Having to grow up alongside of family members who love to watch horror films, I was soon adapted in watching many horror films and other disturbing films. It is true that horror and gore are completely different, but at some point I do enjoy watching both for the thrill. Unlike my comic thought of this story, in a movie I’d like to see it in good quality and details to make the thrill real. Comic is something people of many ages enjoy reading, but there are so many movies that are mainly directed toward adults that this story would be fun for older people to watch it. Also movie gives out a complete different feeling compared to a comic book since movies use actors and actresses to make it quite real. The disturbing and gory part of the story may be graphic ending up disgusting many people, however that thrill will definitely be something people would dig for.